had my proper complement of buttons, and
my frills were generally burned into holes, so
that sometimes they had the appearance of
lace. All that is changed; and this is how
the metamorphosis was accomplished.

"I went round among the neighbours, and
found the discontent with the existing state
of things universal. The tyranny of the
washerwoman was intolerable, and we determined
to become the Pyms and Hampdens of
the laundry. Some were inclined to what
may be called the fifth monarchy principles
of total abolition, and talked of dirt and independence,
by never having their clothes
washed at all; but the principles of cleanliness
and moderation were dear to the great
majority. So I laid before them a plan I had
deeply studied. The lady of the present day
to whom wealth has been entrusted for the
purpose of showing what a noble and unselfish
use can be made of it, had presented to
the hospital at Scutari an admirable contrivance
for the rapid drying of the linen of a
vast establishment for the reception of upwards
of a thousand sick and wounded men.
In the model wash-houses of London, excellent
appliances had been introduced for the
saving of labour and fuel. In another
quarter I heard of a contrivance for the
washing of the clothes, where machinery
performed the first and hardest part of the
labour, leaving only the easier portion of
the ironing and getting-up to the hands of
the professional ladies. The calculation made
by all the people I consulted as to the saving
of expense by the adoption of these and other
processes was, that it could not be less than a
half of the usual outlay, and might be a great
deal more. Here was a saving of half my
annual bill—if of mine, of Jobbins' and
Mobbins', and everybody else's. Now the number
of people in this district with incomes from
three up to twelve hundred a-year is immense,
and although a man's outlay in this respect is
not regulated by his income, but principally
by the number of his family, I considered I
was safe in taking the average washing-bill
of each family at thirty pounds a-year, which
is certainly not half their amount under the
usual system. There are forty of us, all
anxious to be tidy and economical, and here
was a sum of twelve hundred a-year on which
we could rely with certainty. We formed a
sort of joint-stock company, managed by a
committee of ourselves. We purchased an
old barn, and fitted it up with long troughs
for the washing, immense cauldrons, fed from
a tank of soft water, and a large drying-closet,
with every apparatus of pipe and
cistern that could be required. We also
turned a portion of the building into a room
for the finishing off of finer portions of apparel,
with ironing-boards, needles, threads,
and buttons to supply the place of the lost
and broken; and the expense of all this preliminary
stock was about three hundred
pounds. In the old arrangement labour is
almost the entire expense. In a washing, for
instance, of a moderate-sized family, amounting
to what is technically called twenty-four
dozen (articles, be it understood, not people),
the items consist of fifteen shillings for work,
and only three shillings and twopence for
material—namely, one-and-twopence for soap,
threepence for soda, a shilling for starch, and
a penny for blue. Now here comes in the
overwhelming advantage of the economy of
labour. Our staff consists of fifteen damsels,
strapping and tall, at twelve shillings a-week,
a man and horse and cart, for general
purposes, we take at one pound twelve; materials
of all sorts, such as soap, starch, and soda, we
put down for five pounds a-week; the coals
at four; and the interest on subscribed
capital at twelve shillings. This makes a
grand total of twenty pounds four shillings
a-week, or about a thousand and fifty pounds
a-year. In addition to this, we must calculate
the salary of a clerk of the washing-book,
whom we think of appointing to keep the
accounts and collect the weekly payments;
and this, being liberal, we fix at seventy-five
pounds. But with all this, there is a very
satisfactory margin on the original estimate.
We shall consider the surplus a fund for
repairs and sundries for machinery will get
out of order, troughs will leak, tubes are not
perennial, and coals and other materials may
rise in price."

I paused a while before I made any reply
to the benevolent Hobbins. He seemed sure
of his ground his calculations appeared
reasonable enough. "But," I said, "this
plan seems only adapted for a populous
neighbourhood like this. It needs a great
number of contributors to make the system
economical."

"It needs a certain number," he replied;
"but they need not be so many as I have
said. It would still be a considerable saving
if the company consisted of only a dozen;
but in this, as in all other instances of combination,
the more the better. If, instead of
forty families we had eighty, the proportionate
expenditure to each would be still
farther diminished. But the great principle
of the plan is as much proved by twenty as
by a hundred. It is in anybody's power to
diminish his washing-bill by a half, and that
without injury to the present race of gin-loving blanchissenses, for their work will be
certain instead of precarious; the linen will
be more carefully treated, the water mixed
with no deleterious ingredients to give an
easy whiteness to the collar and front, at the
expense of early rottenness and decay; and,
in fact, as I said before, I have no doubt the
Russian war could be carried on on the
savings effected in suds and soda. I shall
propose to the herald's college that a clean
shirt be introduced into the royal standard
for the honour of Old England, and a sign of
scorn and defiance of the unwashed savages
of the north.